Life of the Belly Dance Photographer
3rd Annual Belly Dance Photography Marathon
Sat, January 3, 2009 - 11:53 PM
I prefer to work with belly dancers who are seriously dedicated to their art, because that disposition very much matches mine, and so working together is much more synchronistic. The year before, for the 2nd Annual Belly Dance Photography Marathon in December 2007, I was playing "catch up" for numerous photo shoots that had not been possible to schedule. So in December of that year, I photographed some 45 belly dancers, though most were in two troupes. I did not want to repeat that so much, preferring to work more deeply creatively, and with fewer dancers rather than more.
Another thing I did this last December 2008 was force myself to use new lighting and other aspects of the photography. I did my first ever High Dynamic Range (HDR) belly dance photo, a technique surely of value for incredible skin tone results. Over this Holiday break time, I've also been improving my imaging skills, and have been learning the Adobe CS4 tool suite in more detail, as well as LightZone, and some other specialized digital skin care software. As part of this learning, I discovered that Photoshop CS4 has a method similar to the HDR technique for extreme depth-of-field.
The photo above is Aazura Nour, part of our collaboration on Cleopatra. It was taken using a Lens Baby 3G.
More detailed blog entry, with more photos here: raksphoto.blogspot.com/
Sat, January 3, 2009 - 11:53 PM -
permalink -
7 Comments
7 Comments |
add a comment |
|
Sun, January 4, 2009 - 9:10 AM
You're amazing! I will do light experiments with you anytime. :) Thank you for including me!
|
|
Sun, January 4, 2009 - 10:11 AM
I was going to ask if you had used a Lensbaby to take that shot. Have you tried the Composer yet?
|
|
Sun, January 4, 2009 - 11:05 AM
I'm so sorry we were unable to make the December shoots - Looking forward to next years.
You know you can always call me to work on a project for you - anytime! Enchanted Wishes, Love, Magick & Respect..............)O( |
|
Sun, January 4, 2009 - 11:29 AM
Jane,
No, I've not tried the composer yet :-(. The selective focus lens, while I want to use it very creatively, seems to obtain mixed results; I'm sure I need more skill in using it. But in terms of "photography dollars" right now, I really need to conserve (I'm sure the Composer is relatively inexpensive, nonetheless), because 2008 has now finally seen the complete end of the last-possible window for maintenance. Belly dance is touch on gear! I've already lost 2 cameras to wear-out and an accident and this week, my 1D Mark III unit #1 fall on it's LCD screen, rendering it pretty much useless. Just a freak thing that happened during a lighting setup change, argh! My model even reached out for it, but it was too far away. My 1D Mark III unit #2 was in an accident in LA previously, but I was able to get it repaired free, because what actually broke is the very thing Canon was doing with their selective repair program due to the focusing issue. However, that camera, while it still works, has recently developed something floating around in it loose inside, I honestly don't know what happened. I think maybe the repair parts have come loose? After unit #1 died this last week, I had to revert to my 1Ds Mark II for studio work. That is still quite a lovely camera, but that camera has definitely had more than 200000 shutter activations, and I really do prefer the 42-bit color at 10.1 Mpixels on the 1D Mark III to the 36-bit color at 16.7 Mpixels on the 1Ds Mark II. The tonal variation is much stronger, and the user interface is also easier to work with on the 1D Mark III In addition, ugh, some workhorse lenses have worn out and/or been damaged ... I've talked to other experienced belly dance photographers, and they are reporting same ... gear spends time in the repair depot, it's part of it's natural life cycle for the busy photographer. So ... eventually I'll probably play with the composer, but must get gear back in shape first, LOL |
|
Sun, January 4, 2009 - 10:08 PM
Great shot! I find myself torn between using the lensbaby or better lenses. My most successful series with Lensbaby's was a "Zombie Crawl". The surreal look of the images went all too well with the subject matter.
|
|
Mon, January 5, 2009 - 12:04 PM
Wow! She looks magnificent!!! I love that lensbaby. I have to thank you, get down on my knees and thank you for all that you do for our art and our community. Your work is amazing, and I am so lucky to have been a part of this end of the year extravaganza! I can't wait to see everyones pics with all the new lighting that you've been working with. Thank you Michael!!
|
|
Fri, January 9, 2009 - 7:56 PM
Hello Michael;
This is beautiful. I love lensbaby. I have one as well. I hope to meet you someday. Love and Happy New Year. Audra |
